My opinions, and oh, I’ve got them – Part 5 of 5

Lastly, there are the people who are pessimistic about breastfeeding.

I recently offered up two canisters of Enfamil formula on Twitter. They showed up in my mailbox that afternoon (either thanks to Motherhood Maternity or Baptist Hospital selling my contact information – yay!), and I don’t need or want them, because I am determined to breastfeed. I got a well-meaning response telling me that I might want to hang on to them because the individual’s wife had to give up on breastfeeding after a few weeks.

Like I said, it was well-meaning, but it was more negativity that I was not interested in hearing. This is the way I’ve chosen to do it, and this is how I’m going to do it. If I fail, you can quietly pat yourself on the back, but for now, there is no reason not to be positive. Plenty of people succeed at it.

Furthermore, I’ve read a lot about breastfeeding and I feel like I’ve got a pretty good handle on how to do it, and what to do if there’s a problem. Every single thing I’ve read about it says that if it’s not working out, don’t give up without talking to a doctor, nurse or lactation consultant. They might know something you don’t. It’s worth a shot.

On a side note, I don’t understand why people don’t at least give it a chance (barring medical complications like HIV). Even if you don’t give a shit about all of the benefits to the baby, there are benefits for you, too. The main two being weight loss (you burn a lot of calories breastfeeding) and a considerable savings (formula is expensive). Maybe I’m missing something, but it seems like something you should try rather than dismissing it out of hand.

I think that the bottom line is this: whether or not you’ve had kids, you need to be conscious of what you say to people who are expecting. At best, they’ve already heard it, and at worst, you’re really going to piss them off. It’s probably best to keep your lips zipped until you are asked for advice or opinions. Or you can just hold an aspirin between your lips.

Comments for this post are closed. I’ve learned that mothers and mothers-to-be can be an easily-angered, opinionated and judgmental group (obviously I’m no exception). In order to prevent myself from having one more thing to get mad about, I’m not really interested in hearing that you disagree. This is really my last place to vent, since Twitter and Facebook (oh especially you, Facebook) have become minefields. If you don’t like my opinion, no one’s forcing you to read.